28-hour gamer party kicks off this weekend

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Elli Fournier, a fourth-year information technology student from Stamford, Conn., is the president of Electronic Gaming Society, RIT’s largest gaming club. She is also the marketing director of the Association for Commuter Engagement, student ambassador for the Career Services and Cooperative Education office and student ambassador for the Information Sciences and Technologies department.

Elli Fournier, a fourth-year information technology student from Stamford, Conn., is the president of Electronic Gaming Society, RIT’s largest gaming club. Fournier is also the marketing director of the Association for Commuter Engagement, student ambassador for the Career Services and Cooperative Education office and student ambassador for the Information Sciences and Technologies department. This weekend, EGS is hosting No Man’s LAN, which is its first LAN (local area network) party of the year. The event begins at 10 a.m. Saturday and ends at 3 p.m. Sunday and will be held in the Student Alumni Union cafeteria. Tickets are available online and at the Gordon Field House box office.

Question: What brought you to RIT?
Answer: The two things I liked about RIT were the co-op program and the strong art programs. Before I picked information technology as my major, I also considered graphic design. I still do a little bit of design work here and there.

Q: Why did you choose to major in information technology instead of graphic design?
A: I chose information technology because unlike many other majors, I get to touch on a lot of different aspects of technology—Web design, databases, networking, programming—and I got to choose what I really wanted to delve into. Personally, I’m most interested in Web development and database design.

Q: What is EGS?
A: EGS is a social club that brings together gamers. We want gamers to come out and play games with other people and have fun. I met a lot of my friends through EGS. You don’t even need to be a gamer—you can bring your laptop and just do homework with us if you want to.

Q: How did you get involved with EGS?
A: My freshman year I went to ZeroFest, which is a big EGS gaming event held during orientation week. I met a bunch of cool E-Board people that I became friends with and I just never stopped going to the meetings! I also really wanted to contribute to the RIT community.

Q: What is a LAN party?
A: Basically, you bring your computer and play games for 28 hours and win awesome prizes with hundreds of other gamers. We mostly play local multiplayer games—there’s lots of yelling across the room between teams, it’s great—and we have a couple of tournaments. Usually we have around 200 to 250 people at our LAN parties.

Q: What is No Man’s LAN?
A: No Man’s LAN is this weekend and it’s our first LAN party of the year. We’ll have tournaments, giveaways and free food. We have a lot of events planned for games like Minecraft, StarCraft, League of Legends and Defense of the Ancients and we’ll also have some non-video game things like Cards Against Humanity. It’s a great atmosphere and a ton of fun.

Q: Why do you love video games?
A: I love how games stimulate my mind. I actually got into gaming here at RIT and I love how my mind is constantly working when I’m gaming versus passive activities like watching TV.

Q: Is it hard to balance your time between school and all of the organizations you’re involved with?
A: It’s really important to be open with your management and peers about what you have going on. It’s not good to try and do everything when you know you can’t. Allocating my time properly is how I stay on top of everything.

Q: What will you miss most about RIT after you graduate?
A: I’ll definitely miss how busy college life is. People complain about being too busy but I really like being involved in so many things. I’ll also miss all of the friends I’ve made here over the last four years.

Q: Do you have any advice for other students?
A: Don’t be afraid to socialize and pursue your interests. I’ve made a lot of friends from class by just asking someone about a question on a test and other things like that. Get out there, join things and get engaged.

Derrick Hunt compiles “Student Spotlights” for University News. Contact him at djh9758@rit.edu with suggestions.